


All Around the Fire

by Briarfox13



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 12:59:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15143585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Briarfox13/pseuds/Briarfox13





	All Around the Fire

The sun slowly began to set, setting the sky aflame with a multitude of reds, golds and oranges. Trees silhouetted black against the fiery skyline; they surrounded a small camper fire, dark fingers guarding the small party sat round it from the world outside and the horrors of the blight. At the centre of the group sat an elf, a grey warden lost in thought staring at the sky above her. She so loved to watch the stars above, how they moved and wheeled above them as the night drew in. A fire cracked and cooed before her, sending long shadows over her companions. The warden looked around her and the small band of misfits sat around the fire, brought together through chance and coincidence. Why were they all here? The elf thought, looking around closely at each one in turn. Why had they chosen to stay with her, right here? When they could have run away into the hills never to return. 

Asha, once a member of the Sabrae clan and now legendary Grey Warden watched her companions, dark blue eyes darting back and forth between them, a smile creeping across her normally stoic face. She had loved her clan very much, they had given her shelter, love, friendship and she loved them dearly but there was something lacking. Something she couldn’t quite put a finger on…something was missing. And yet, it was with these misfits that she felt most at home, around this fire as they fought the Blight together. The Grey Warden sipped her drink and turned her inquisitive gaze on her fellow elf; Zevran the Antivan assassin who had tried to kill her at Loghain’s behest. He had failed, a flirtatious grin on his face, but he had been honest.Aa trait Asha highly admired; from then on, he was no longer a Crow, but a brother who protected his sister in battle. And from there he grew, grew to trust in himself and be true to who he was, not what the Crows had made of him. 

Beside him sat Morrigan alone, aloof and apart from the others. Dark hair glowing in the red-light and bright eyes constantly watching. She was a Witch of the Wilds: dangerous, sly with a skin of stone and yet so lonely. So lonely that she jumped at the chance to travel with them, bringing her barbed words and fierce face, and yet she had a heart of gold. Proving again and again her fierce brand of friendship and devotion when she risked life and limb for them all.

Opposite sat Wynne, their other mage and the antithesis of Morrigan. A woman with a spirit inside determined to let her live life to the full. There was a sadness to her that Asha perceive through her polite jokes and conversation. The Mage she had lost someone dear to her through some fault of her own and wanted to learn, be redeemed for her faults and find her place in a world she was too old to understand. Together they had found a new family: a child looking for a mother, and another for a child. 

Next Asha spied Leliana, Chantry sister turned adventurer looking for the guidance she so sought from the Maker. She sat strumming her lute gently crooning a song to Sandal. The two of them had bonded quickly and often sang together, lips upturned in genuine smiles and looks of unconditional love. Together they had learnt what the world could offer even in its darkest times and how to use it to save hundreds, maybe thousands of lives from the Archdemon, blasted king of all.

Skulking on the edge of the fire sat Shale, the monstrosity of stone and crystal. The Warden studied her closely: scanning over the glowing runes upon her head and that encircled her throat like a collar. She had only been too happy to be free from her bondage, and yet so reticent to make friends amongst the party. But Asha had persistent wanting to know more, her desire to learn driving to her befriend the great hulking stone. From this Shale relented and together, she and Asha had learnt of a world not meant for outsiders made of stone and wood. And together they grew from this, stronger than any crystal and more beautiful than a forest. 

By hulking mass of living rock sat Sten the Qunari, so lost and far from home gently cleaning the long vicious blade he had fought so hard to keep. It had taken her months to slowly gain his confidence but slowly and surely, he spoke of his time in Sehron, the Qun and his journey to Ferelden. Sooner they become blood brothers, men at arms bound together by blood and the key to a cage: sworn to protect each other no matter the cost to the other. The more they stood side by side, roaring into combat the less he wanted to leave Ferelden dusky shores and sail back. Maybe the Qun was not the home he had wanted but the one he was forced to serve, Asha thought staring at him over her cup. Just maybe Ferelden was finally the home he had wanted and dreamt of as a child. 

Next came Oghren, drunk and rowdy and yet the Grey Warden could count him amongst her closest. He had been used and betrayed by a woman he thought had loved him. Angry and lost down below in the darkest of Deep Roads they had found him spewing his gut and filthy words to the non-existent heavens above. But over time above ground, he had changed like the seasons, grown warmer and. Asha thought back to their chats, sat around a fire much like this one, where they had aired their wants and needs and feeling better for it, now they laughed under the stars like brother and sister. 

Bodhan watched his son lovingly as he stirred that last of the soup, rescued from thugs extorting the broken and terrified. At first, it had been a beneficial arrangement, she brought good and he supplied new and enchantments. But over time, when mission after mission, battle after battle he would waddle over food or medicine in hand, happily chatting of the day’s news, distracting them from the real pain. Now he and Sandal were invaluable, and the party never travelled without their trusty Dwarves who always whatever the weather brought joy. 

Fen the excitable Mabari whom she’d fallen in love with the minute they’d met. He was alone and sick, given the Taint by the heartless Darkspawn, and in her determination to save him perhaps he had saved her too, the elf mused. Perhaps he had saved her from the guilt of Tamlen’s death, the guilt of doing nothing and turning her back at him and that accurséd mirror. Together they had been healed of the rot that devoured their very souls and set free to complete their mission and their ever-changing lives at each other's sides. 

And of course, there was Alistair: beautiful, gentle Alistair who was loyal to a fault and determined to do his duty to Duncan, the man he wanted to call father. Unsure of who he was and who he’d be, he made his bed under the stars by night and killed Darkspawn by day. He had guided her through the intricacies of their task and soon, she had thought more of him. And he of her, soon it was her leading the young man through the intricacies known as love. A pale blush spread across the young woman’s face as she thought about the man she had come to love and all that they had done together. 

This was her family, not the one she perhaps would have chosen in a million ages. But it was the one she had collected, the family she fought for, the family she craved and loved. These misfits were the family that loved her, that trusted her; an elf, a Dalish, an outsider. To a passer-by travelling in the cool summer months along narrow and twisted roads they were odd; a group of misfits gathered together by coincidence for the warmth of a fire. But they couldn't be further from the truth: these people were misfits, lost, alone, broken were broken no more because they were family…family all around the fire.


End file.
